St. Patrick's Day Stakeout

Steph thought of tonight as a stakeout - of sorts.

She and Lula had met a nice guy at work. That meant, of course, they met a nice skip. He seemed semi-normal, but you can never be too careful. So when he bonded out again and asked Lula for drinks, Steph and Connie went too...as backup.

It just so happened it was St. Patrick's Day and the bars were loaded with green beer! While she and Connie watched Lula and her skip from across the bar, they worked their way through a pitcher of green beer.

When Ranger and some of his guys rolled in around 7:30, after catching their last skip, Steph was well on her way to a good buzz.

"Hi, Babe. Having fun?" He asked leaning down to kiss her, something he'd done A LOT since Valentine's Day and their stakeout confessions to each other.

"Yes! But I'm glad you're here! Lula's date seems to be going really well."

"How's the beer, Beautiful? Save any for me?" Lester slid onto the stool next to Connie.

"How can you tell the date's going well?" Bobby asked. "Because he's still here?"

Steph smacked him, and then burst out laughing because he was kind of right. Tank could only shake his head.

"So, I'm guessing you got Alvarez?" Connie asked Tank. "Vinnie has his panties in a twist over that guy."

"Yeah. Dude pulled a knife. We broke his arm."

"Eh, whatever. I'll mail the check to Rangeman." Connie was over the skips and their gripes.

After a few more pitchers of the green beer, Lula's date was STILL there. They'd move onto the tiny dance floor, and none of them could watch Lula's gyrations for long. "My eyes," whined Bobby. "I can't watch anymore," complained Lester.

"Man up." This from Tank.

"Pussies." This from Ranger.

"Easy for you two to say," Lester said. "You've already seen ALL of that," pointing to Tank. "And you haven't seen ANY of it because you've had your tongue down Steph's throat for the last half hour," pointing to Ranger.

Connie piped in, "Look, she's coming this way! Shhhhhh."

Sure enough, Lula was coming towards them, sans her date.

"So! How'd it go?" Steph asked.

"Okay, I guess. He had to go, and said he'd call me."

"Well, that's good," Connie said. "No bad vibes?"

"Other than I feel like he just blew me off? It's St. Patrick's Day! I'm supposed to get lucky!" Lula looked perplexed, and a little pissed.

Steph heard Lester choke (or gag) behind her, and drew Lula's attention to her, "You did get lucky. You met a nice guy! That doesn't happen every day!"

Semi-convinced and mollified, Lula looked at Steph and Ranger. "Hey Batman, you probably think you're gonna get lucky tonight, right?"

Ranger, always amused by Lula, played along. He put his arm around Steph and said, "I'm not Irish, but I like my chances."

Steph rolled her eyes. Duh, she thought. He'd gotten lucky every day for the past month, and so had she!

She looked around when she heard laughter, and realized she'd said that out loud. The guys were fist bumping Ranger, and the girls stood motionless with their mouths hanging open.

"Babe." She buried her head into his chest.

Lester, suitably impressed, couldn't keep quiet. "Beautiful. You might be the best girlfriend ever!"

She looked up at Ranger, remembering their Valentine's Day conversation about her being the worst girlfriend ever - to Joe.

Reading her mind, he leaned down and whispered, "He's right, and not just because of our sex life. You're perfect."

When she kissed him, he picked her up and flipped her so she was straddling him on the bar stool.

Her oblivious and him comfortable that his guys had his back, they made out like teenagers. And didn't even hear Lula say at least she was going to watch someone else get lucky today.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!